Grandma's Book of Fairytales
by reminiscent-afterthought
Summary: Not all families were so close knit as their twosome. And there was a reason for that.
1. Father

Author's Notes

Another collection of drabbles. I intend for the length to be 8 drabbles, but the lengths don't always come out the way I want. A lot of things don't, but then again, that's half the fun.

About the age, I don't know about all but some four year olds can definitely read. I was reading the babysitters club by my fifth birthday; maybe that's why I'm still such a bookworm. Couldn't write to save my life and my speaking English was pretty bad. But then again, English isn't my native tongue. Didn't start getting more than a fifty something till year 8 (form 2 in some countries). Bottom line though is that it's not impossible for four year olds to read picture books. Some people do start prep at 4.

Enjoy, and tell me what you think.

* * *

><p><span>Grandma's Book of Fairytales<span>

Not all families were so close knit as their twosome. And there was a reason for that.

Tomoko K & Kouichi K

* * *

><p><span>Drabble 01<span>

Father

Even at four years of age, the twins were as different as could be. Kouichi was quietly attempting to read Momotaro the Peach Boy…actually, he _was_ pretty much reading, between looking at the pictures. He'd taken to books like bees take to honey, and his grandmother, had been more than happy to help. She had even gone so far as to buy the book he had spread open on the living room rug.

Kouji on the other hand was running after the soccer ball. Which was perhaps the better option seeing as their parents were currently in the living room, and arguing a little louder than they should have been with a child still present.

'If you cannot even be home longer than it takes to sleep, eat, drink and do anything else that is absolutely necessary…' Tomoko looked like she was gritting those last words out; perhaps she had another wording in mind and was aiming to make it more child-friendly for the benefit of the child who had raised his focus from the book and was now watching with worry and a slight fear. Almost as if he could sense the tension between his father and mother, and drew a small breath as said mother finished her sentence. 'Then maybe you should reconsider your role as a father.'

The other's face turned into one of rage and the young boy lifted his book off the ground and hid behind it, blue eyes peeking over the rim.

'Don't you dare insinuate that I care nothing for my children. I work long hours to ensure the best for my children. You know…' He continued on.

They were using words too big for the young child, but he could tell his parents were arguing about something.

'If you're not going to come home enough to spend time with your children and your wife, then you either leave one or the other.' The tone was restrained, almost cold.

'Is that a threat Tomoko?'

'Maybe it is.' Okay, there was a bit of childishness in that. Apparently Kousei thought that too.

'I did not marry a child Tomoko.'

'Nor did I marry a man who immerses himself in his work and leaves no time for his family.'

A pause. A draw of breath.

'Tomoko…what will it accomplish if I drop my job. You know with the international economic crisis the likelihood of finding another job is very low. Besides, you can't care for both of them on your own. You wouldn't even be able to take care of one!'

The woman's eyes narrowed. 'Are you insinuating I am unable to care for my own sons on my own?'

'That is exactly what I'm saying!'

'Stop yelling,' Kouichi whimpered quietly as the yelling attracted the younger son who trudged in with muddy socks. But Kouji was the only one who heard the plea.

The phone rang at that point, and it was quieter for a few minutes…until Kousei hung up.

'They need me in the office,' he muttered with a half-glance to his wife. Admittedly the timing couldn't have been far worse.

The other's expression turned stony, and even the two young sets of blue eyes blinking and huddling together could tell that some gigantic slab of earth was going to move.

'We were supposed to spend the night together,' she said coldly. 'Our anniversary. If you want to walk away from that, fine. But don't consider yourself a part of this family any longer.'

'You don't have the power or the right to decide that.'

Then he picked up his briefcase and walked out the door.

'tou-san!' Kouji tried to run after him. The other just sat on the floor, still clutching his book with the beginning of tears forming in his eyes.


	2. Parent

Author's Notes

As far as I know, Kouichi's grandmother has never been named, so I've giving her the name of Kameyo, just like in Bloodstained Night. Her now deceased husband I've named Sato for the simple reason that he pops up in The Karate Kid II. I think.

In Japan, the legal age for marriage is eighteen for a man and sixteen for a woman.

Remember, most of these are in close knit with the divorce, so characters are acting out of character. That being said, I think Kouichi's relationship with Tomoko is a little overly…well, the negative aspects are basically chipped away with a chisel. Seriously, they can't get along perfectly. Somewhere along the line there had to be trouble. How could Kouichi not be upset at his _mother_ for hiding the truth when he was upset at his father and a perfectly innocent _brother_? The only way that works for me is if something groundbreaking happened to cement their relationship around the same time, and this is one take of that.

Enjoy, and tell me what you think.

* * *

><p><span>Grandma's Book of Fairytales<span>

Not all families were so close knit as their twosome. And there was a reason for that.

Tomoko K & Kouichi K

* * *

><p><span>Drabble 02<span>

Parent

'Kousei was right,' Tomoko choked, pulling her fingers almost jerking through her hair. 'I can't raise my children on my own. I can't even raise one. I just don't know what to do with Kouichi.'

'I did tell you that you were rushing things too much Tomoko,' Kameyo said slowly, looking at the closed door that harboured the previously hysterical sleeping child. 'You know I never approved of your marriage, even after Sato gave his blessings. However I felt after his death that maybe I was thinking too much of you as the little girl I had raised and more as the young woman you had grown in to and decided that it was ultimately your decision to make, but I was doubly surprised when you informed me you had fallen pregnant so soon.'

'We hadn't been planning on having children for another few years at least.' Tomoko continued to wring her hands through her hair, causing quite a mess of the bluish-black strands.

'Which was a perfectly reasonable plan,' her mother nodded. 'Seeing as you were only sixteen at the time. Only it didn't work out that way.'

'No,' the daughter agreed. 'It didn't.' And she buried her face. 'It was fine for a bit. I was excited at first, but then it began weighing down, but Kousei was still fine with the idea when I was having my doubts, and everyone was so supportive. And seeing two bundles of joy like they were, I never regretted not giving into my doubts. _Ever_. Until now.' She paused. 'You both were right. I'm not ready to raise a child. Especially on my own.'

Kameyo was silent for a few minutes after the declaration. 'It's too late for second guesses now. Your marriage didn't work. Fine, that happens. You lost one son to your ex-husband and the law but you have another and he needs you. He needs his mother to comfort him. The poor boy almost burst into tears,' she jerked her head at the closed door again, 'when you pulled away from him like that.'

'I'm not the one he runs too when he's in need of comfort,' Tomoko said quietly, before standing up. 'I need to get to work.'

Kameyo wisely didn't point out she was doing exactly what she had accused her husband of. The strained look on the twenty year old's face told her that she was fully aware.

'If I don't work, then where will we be?' she asked. 'You can't work. 'tou-san's money won't hold you forever. And the apartment. And Kouichi will start school this year. And-'

It was quite obvious that the woman was working herself up. At times like this she, Kameyo that is, wished she had accepted her husband's proposal to move to Germany rather than choosing to remain in Japan. Of course, she could hardly blame law, or society for every problem in the world.

'It's not enough. It will never be enough.'

'No,' Kameyo agreed. 'It isn't. A child deserves both their parents, not just one.'

'We argued about petty things, and both of us said things that weren't true, but I think it truly was impossible for me to be the mother he wanted and for him to be that father.'

'But it is not your or him that matter, but your children.'

She smiled humorously, before turning her back and retrieving her purse, grabbing a slightly damp towel to freshen up her face before lightly running a hand through her hair to flatten it. With the wind outside likely no-one will notice the difference between variations of wind-blown appearances.

'That doesn't change the fact that he's mad at me. And for good reason.'

'Need I remind you who the mother is?'

But when Tomoko turned back to her, she thought that maybe it wasn't the daughter that needed the reminder. 'Do you remember his first word?' she asked, after reconsidering her words.

His first words had been "Mama". Not unusual, except they had been aimed at the wrong person.


	3. Child

Author's Notes

I think DarkKnightCessi had the right idea about the trauma…or rather, _a_ right idea to be honest. There were two, actually three, other possibilities I could think of, one being that Tomoko gave him a picture just like Kousei did to Kouji (or Kouji find, not entirely sure but Kousei definitely knew of it) or Kouichi looked him up after his grandmother's death and found enough information to piece together a mental image and/or he found out what his father looked out after finding the address. But in all those cases, he'd forget eventually by trauma. If he's wailing for his father and brother every day, he'd remember that even if he was really young…unless someone did manage to convince him otherwise. But for the purpose of this story…err, if you want to call this a story, that's a trauma reaction at the end. We tend to put reality to a dream when we're confused and in a sort of situation where…well, I'd say getting separated _permanently_ from a brother counts. Miscarriages can too. More so for the rest of the family than the mother. Then strokes, the likes. You get the idea hopefully, because I can't explain any better unfortunately.

Enjoy, and tell me what you think.

* * *

><p><span>Grandma's Book of Fairytales<span>

Not all families were so close knit as their twosome. And there was a reason for that.

Tomoko K & Kouichi K

* * *

><p><span>Drabble 03<span>

Child

Kameyo knocked gently on the door, though she didn't really expect an answer nor did she receive one. She opened the door anyway and slipped in (or perhaps slipped is the wrong word, what with a walking stick and all), not bothering to close it behind her as she thudded along to the blankets, stick alternating with feet.

That was practically impossible to miss, so it was no surprise that Kouichi looked up, half tangled in his bed and clutching a stuffed Jizo…with a blue baseball cap. The aging woman resisted a chuckle. Ojizo-san was one of her elder grandson's favourite fairytales.

'Where's Mama?' Big blue eyes peeked up at her at in desperation. 'Where's 'touto-chan. Where's Papa? Where's home?'

She could see why Tomoko was having trouble dealing with her son right at that present moment. Divorces always became ten times more complicated when children were involved. Even more complicated when the children were too young. Even more so when children were split up and that needed to be explained. And worse when the sudden stress of having to single handedly support the new family crashed onto the shoulders of a woman who had never gone past high school.

If only her back wasn't such a pain, but being barely able to walk without a cane wasn't very good on the prospect on a resume. Of course, a high school graduate with no higher level degree wasn't much better, especially with a divorce under the belt in a taboo society, but it was a possibility. Secretarial work, running around supermarket stores…more work than was worth the money to be honest, but necessary work when it came to supporting both an elderly sick mother and a four year old son.

'Your mother's at work,' Kameyo sighed, struggling to take a seat on the futon. It was going to hurt once the time came to sit up. 'And your father's…well, he's gone. And this is your home. At least for now it is.'

Some children worked best with at least some sort of factual information. Of course they wouldn't respond well to the fact that their parents had split up and he would perhaps never see his brother again (Japan wasn't a big believer of joint custody or visiting rights) though.

'Gone?' Blue eyes watered. 'Mama left because she and Papa were mad at each other.' A sniff and his grandmother had to marvel at the boy's perceptiveness…which in the current situation wasn't necessarily a good thing.

'Something like that,' Kameyo admitted.

'Because Papa wasn't home a lot.'

A pause. That was certainly irresponsible on all three but she supposed she couldn't blame her grandson all that much for not running off when he was supposed to.

'They fought about a lot of things. I guess it just wasn't meant to be, but don't worry about that now, okay?'

'What about Kouji? Is he-?' He whimpered again, clutching the blanket closer to himself. 'Was it all a dream? My head hurts…'

His eyelids fluttered, and the elderly woman noticed the slightly erratic breathing at that moment. She supposed it was the questions that had threw her off.


	4. Pet

Author's Notes

Kameyo is living in the old people's home now. Kouichi and Tomoko live in an apartment but Kouichi spends a lot of time with his grandmother. Too much time with his grandmother to be honest.

Enjoy, and tell me what you think.

* * *

><p><span>Grandma's Book of Fairytales<span>

Not all families were so close knit as their twosome. And there was a reason for that.

Tomoko K & Kouichi K

* * *

><p><span>Drabble 04<span>

Pet

Kouichi's fifth birthday was an especially sad affair, except perhaps for the boy himself. Once he had recovered from a sudden bout of illness that had nearly sent him to a hospital bed, the twin that had once been connected at the hip before the miracle operation was nothing more than a dim echo in the buried corners of his mind. Both mother and grandmother knew this because one, he stopped mentioning him, and two, any attributes that had belonged to the younger twin were dumped on an imaginary friend that was fading as he grew. Not for real friends, or not exactly; he got along amiably with children but he wasn't particularly close to them. He preferred the books.

Keeping that in mind, Tomoko had given him another book, Tomo: Friendship through Fiction. While it was normally read by children 12 and up, he would no doubt enjoy both someone reading to him and the challenge of reading them himself, and he was far more advanced in reading than the average five year old in any case…according to his elementary school teacher. His writing was catching up fast once he got the hang of it, but his speech was still rather lacking. That unfortunately made it even harder to communicate with him. Not to mention the ungodly hours, but her boss had made it perfectly clear she had no choice in that particular matter. But the book was heavily bent towards friendship and socialisation, so perhaps a subliminal message would pass through.

Kouichi had, predictably, been thrilled at the book, and had made to give his mother a big hug. "Made to" being the key word there, as the other present decided it, or rather she, couldn't wait another second, and squawked. In the next second, Kouichi had jumped, stared at his mischievous looking Grandma, and undid the bow holding the box in place and freed a raven hopping around in it.

'Oh really 'kaa-san,' Tomoko sighed, watching the five year old catch the black bird and stroke the feathers happily. 'You know the landlord won't be happy about this.'

'I know,' Kameyo said knowledgably. 'She'll be staying with me, what with the no pets rule and all. They have a large bird room.' She smiled at his grandson, who was now laughing as the raven trotted over his legs and advertently tickled him. 'What will you name him sweetie?'

'Hmm…Tomo,' he declared after a minute.

Tomoko wasn't sure what to make of that at the time, but Tomo seemed to cause as much problems as she rectified. For one, Kouichi had no problems talking to her, even with an eavesdropping grandmother. For another, the young raven caused him to run a lot in the bird room, seeing as he had protested to the wings being clipped so he wasn't always sitting with a book and turning into a ghost or a wrath. But he spent even less time in the apartment that was now their home; after school he would rush off to the nursing home his grandmother lived at, tell her all about his day (with more details than his mother's questions), show awards sometimes and share treats he sometimes received, do his homework with some help, listen and read stories, play a board game sometimes and play with Tomo and talk to her. That used up all available time and a little extra and Tomoko was forced to consider putting a curfew to make sure her son wasn't wandering around at night, but reconsidered and simply appeared at the door of the nursing home to walk him home. Her son had never mentioned anything to her, but she had caught him asking his grandmother if he could stay with her.

She'd fled before she heard the answer, and the explanation, and waited nervously at the door.


	5. Grandmother

Author's Notes

Enjoy, and tell me what you think.

Is anyone reading these things? 'cause I only know what the hits tell me...

* * *

><p><span>Grandma's Book of Fairytales<span>

Not all families were so close knit as their twosome. And there was a reason for that.

Tomoko K & Kouichi K

* * *

><p><span>Drabble 05<span>

Grandmother

Maybe it was a good thing, Kameyo thought, that Tomoko was working all during Mother's Day and Kouichi performed his habitual routine of dropping into the nursing home straight after school. Again. No doubt she would have been extremely hurt, and who could blame her. That case in point, one couldn't exactly blame the five year old either, seeing as he spent a great deal of time with his grandmother as opposed to his mother, even before the divorce, and had to sometimes stumble upon accidently calling the wrong person "Mama".

'Where's your mother?' Kameyo asked, kindly yet firmly as the boy stopped in his tracks, having caught the firmness of the tone.

'I think she's working again,' the boy muttered, awkwardly fingering the two packages semi-poorly wrapped. Apparently he didn't quite hold the finesse of his mother nor had he taken the time to learn nor had she pressed to teach such.

'You think?' She knew for a fact that Tomoko was in fact, not working that afternoon.

Kouichi, on the other hand, either hadn't been told or hadn't been concentrating when he had been told.

'Did you bring her something?' she asked curiously.

Kouichi nodded and offered both packages to her. Kameyo took them both, then handed one back. 'You don't give to your Grandmother on Mother's Day.'

'Why not?' the other asked, looking almost sadly at the still wrapped present in his hands.

'Because it's _Mother's_ Day,' his grandmother patiently explained, patting the armrest. 'It's something you should share with your mother alone.'

'But-' the other began, after clambering onto the armrest.

'Hush dear,' his grandmother whispered. 'I know. Your mother doesn't sit with you and sing you to sleep in a fever, but then, you cling so tightly to me she cannot. I know your mother doesn't congratulate you on your stickers and awards, but then how many of them have you mentioned to her? I know she hardly comes to your ceremonies and concerts, but you know she works hard so you have everything you need.'

The other's form curled slightly on the armrest and into his grandmother's embrace.

'Is it my fault?' he asked, biting his nails lightly (not at all hard enough to actually bite _through_). 'That 'kaa-san and 'tou-san split up?'

'Oh Kouichi, it had nothing to do with you. These things just happened. If anything it is my fault for trying to huddle under a blanket that wasn't really mine in the hopes of easing another's burden.'

It took quite a while to explain, then explain the duel tears and the coughing which unfortunately brought about _another_ explanation and _another_ set of tears before Kouichi ran off with present in hand. The sneaky child had still left the other one for his grandmother though.

She wondered what would happen next year. Only the wonderings were cut off when her grandson appeared to her on the porch again, breathless and in tears. Again.

'My dear heavens, what in the world is the matter?'

'Mama,' the boy panted, and for a moment she wondered if she really had irrevocably made a mess of things. But then Kouichi finished: '…sick.'

So the mother's mother hobbled as fast as her walking stick could carry her.


	6. Home

Author's Notes

Enjoy, and tell me what you think.

* * *

><p><span>Grandma's Book of Fairytales<span>

Not all families were so close knit as their twosome. And there was a reason for that.

Tomoko K & Kouichi K

* * *

><p><span>Drabble 06<span>

Home

'kaa'san? I'm home.'

Now that the words were out of his mouth, he didn't remember ever saying them before….well before a short while ago in any case. Not like that anyway. Not to the apartment that had never felt like a home before.

'In my bedroom,' she called back, though her voice was slightly muffled. Not the "in bed and/or against the pillow" muffle but more the-

'Mama!' he yelled, slight panicked. 'You're not supposed to be out of bed yet!'

There was silence as he pushed the door open and peeked at his mother…tidying.

''kaa-san…'

'I thought you were at your grandmothers?' It was posed as a question, but getting increasingly difficult to guess at really.

Kouichi shook his head, fiddling with something in his hands before handing it to her. She took it, finding a whole piece of fudge wrapped in its packet.

'Kobaki-sensei gave us all a piece,' the other explained quickly.

Ah yes, coming back from a holiday the elderly male had found it fit to give the little students he called his ducklings a small present before proceeding with the curriculum. Not that she had heard that.

'You didn't eat yours?'

Kouichi shook his head, looking at his feet uncomfortably.

'Kouichi…' Tomoko said, tilting the other's chin up. 'Why don't you tell me about Kobaki-sensei?'

'I-' the boy began, before clamping up. Disappointed, Tomoko made to leave the topic, but fiddling with the fudge wrapper, something occurred to her.

'I remember my fourth grade teacher. Her name was Arukawa-sensei, and every time we got a good mark on a homework piece, or were exceptionally good in class, she'd put a gold star next to our names. But when we were bad, she used to put red stars. I liked the look of those red stars so much I'd purposely be bad so I could have them all lined up neatly next to my name.'

Her son giggled at that. 'Kobaki-sensei gives us lollies and chocolates when we're good. Sometimes he gives liquorice though.' He grimaced at the thought of those bitter tasting sticks. 'Am I allowed to be bad if it's liquorice day?'

'Absolutely not,' his mother said at once. 'Do as I say, not as I do, and you don't want to hear what _my_ mother used to do when Arukawa-sensei called her in one day and showed me those stars.'

'The same thing 'baa-chan will do when she hears you're not in bed?' Kouichi asked innocently.

That rendered Tomoko speechless for all of a minute before she collapsed on her bed with laughter. 'Looks like you inherited that from me,' she chortled, before wiping her eyes lightly, before seriousness took her fold again. 'Kouichi-'

'Gomen,' they both said at the same time, before Kouichi blinked at his mother.

'Adults aren't supposed to say sorry.'

Tomoko frowned. 'Who told you that?'

'Uotoni-san did.'

She knelt down till she was at her son's eye level. 'When an adult is wrong, then they _are_ supposed to say sorry. And I've been wrong a lot, especially when it's come to family…'

She felt a little like she was justifying herself, but she did it anyway.

'Now, what were you apologizing for?'

Kouichi bit his lip, which was slightly better than biting his fingernails. 'I didn't exactly help,' he mumbled, feeling both better and worse, if that was possible. Obviously one talk wasn't the bane of all existence, but as everyone vowed to do better, it was a start.


	7. Mother

Author's Notes

It's a rather large time skip this time. The rest of the drabbles took place between the ages of four and approximately six, though the age in the last two weren't explicitly stated. This is when his grandmother died, and I'm making it ten to allow ample time for the whole heart vs. heart vs. mind debate (and yes, two hearts on purpose), coping with his grandmother's death and then dogging along in Kouji's footsteps and being torn up about that before the Digital World between which at some point he turns eleven. Seeing as Takuya is stated to be ten in the Japanese version, the twins' birthdays must be reasonably close to the time of their adventure in the Digital World and also I think close to Izumi's. Reason being because Takuya doesn't really look younger, meaning his birthday must also be close, on the other side of the date of their adventure. Which allows me to assume for the purpose of some stories, including this one (seeing as I normally adjust the time to suit the story) to assume their adventure took place between May and August. The other point mentioned is that, when Lucemon attacks the real world, someone mentions it's going to be a beautiful sunset, meaning sunset has to be sometime I think between six and six thirty so it can't be summer where it's more around seven-eight. I gather then it's closer to the winter end of autumn/spring, so May is an educated guess.

Just one more to go.

Enjoy, and tell me what you think.

* * *

><p><span>Grandma's Book of Fairytales<span>

Not all families were so close knit as their twosome. And there was a reason for that.

Tomoko K & Kouichi K

* * *

><p><span>Drabble 07<span>

Mother

Sometimes it seemed the funeral customs are especially brutal, especially the one where the family removed the bones from the ashes with either chopsticks or metal pricks. Typically two family members. Unfortunately, there was only two, and Tomoko could feel the other shaking slightly. She was probably shaking herself, but it was very difficult to gauge the extent thereof between two shaking people.

Once the bones were finally separated from the ashes and put into the urn in the correct order and the rest of the rites carried out. As family graves were the most common, Sato's grave had originally been brought to accommodate his wife as well, the cost for the funeral was lessened on the burden of their youngest and only surviving daughter. She couldn't imagine what it would have been like if she couldn't even bury her own mother properly.

The actual funeral was a largely private affair, but no doubt the memorial services, the first of which would be held that very same day, would be more crowded, noisier…and far less personal as everyone payed their respects.

So they could only salvage perhaps half an hour together, windblown and covered a little with mud that neither had bothered to dust off before the present moment in time.

And if Kimura Tomoko was surprised when her son suddenly spun around and hugged her tightly within the first five seconds with tears leaking out of her eyes, she didn't notice. She just hugged back, burying her own tears for when her ten year old charge wasn't around to see them.

It had been a very long time, too long, since she had been able to embrace her son and wipe away his tears. Although they fell for her mother, his grandmother who had played the more important role in raising him…and it was mostly _her_ fault, or so she felt. No doubt there was a blame game floating around because Kameyo had eventually (after the unfortunate death of Tomo) gotten into the habit of sending Kouichi back home on more than one occasion barely ten minutes after he had shown up to visit her. Sometimes the mistimed, attributed to a bad memory from progressing age, resulted in the boy being alone with his novels and homework until his mother came home.

There were a couple of silver linings though, that Kouichi had immediately run to her instead of faltering in his step which he had done on more than one occasion, and he was sharing his tears, the last of which had been six years ago behind closed doors.

A couple salty drops splattered into the dark hair, but no-one noticed them.


	8. Brother

Author's Notes

And that's the end. A bit of a disappointing one I think but it links into the series so it all works out…relatively.

This fic basically focuses on Kouichi's relationship with two people, Tomoko and his grandmother Kameyo, and Kouji is neither of those. Hence the ending. You know, suddenly the shock comes crashing down...

Enjoy, and tell me what you think.

* * *

><p><span>Grandma's Book of Fairytales<span>

Not all families were so close knit as their twosome. And there was a reason for that.

Tomoko K & Kouichi K

* * *

><p><span>Drabble 08<span>

Brother

'Kouichi…you need to know…you have a…brother…'

A part of him wished his grandmother had never told him those words so he could go along living happily in ignorance. But alas, no, the world wasn't quite so kind, and now he was, essentially, a mess.

The first thing was the internal family issues; growing up he had been largely attached to his grandmother, albeit rather unfairly now that he had matured up and had the mindset to reflect back on his earlier memories. Very vaguely he remembered his mother arguing with a shadow of a father about the same issue, and no doubt the memory had been more prominent in his…err, younger youth. But it was quite obvious there was no other choice; too often was Tomoko fretting about bills and funds though the dark haired youth was only aware of a handful of them. His mother was unfortunately very good at keeping things from him, but it had taken a while for him to realise that all had been for his own benefit. Reflecting back, not once had he gone from needing something…not even his mother's company, the hole into which his grandmother had fallen into. Sure he had been hurt at times, but the distancing had not been battling need but rather want, to become more independent and inclusive concurrently…it was a necessity to the growing up process, and no doubt things would be much _much_ worse if it had happened otherwise. Perhaps.

Why did life just keep on getting more and more confusing? Sure he was closer to his mother than ever, especially during the final few weeks where Tomoko had coerced her snivelly boss into some time off, threatening to sue more like, and they had managed to get more family time together then they ever had along with the hopes and slow snail of recovery. Then suddenly throw in a dead grandmother and a brother he hadn't even known he had into the mess, and what else is one going to get?

Tomoko looked even more frazzled than usual, which was to be expected he thought sorrowfully, but not welcome at all. His eleventh birthday had come and gone and it was an especially quiet affair. He spent the afternoon draped on the couch with a tired mother and reading to her as she listened quietly and, for once, listened to the Doctor's instructions and rested.

But she was still unhappy. Sad, tired, with only half of what she should have been getting and toiling for twice its worth.

She smiled up at him, but it was still tired, sad, with the echo of something else. He finally understood the entirety, the reason why his mother had barely been able to face looking at him on that lonely feverish night. Why he still remembered that was a mystery.

But finally, finally, it all made sense. And it hurt. It hurt a lot really that the power to fix it all lay far beyond his reach…and control. And how it must have hurt his mother, knowing another of her children were somewhere with the man she had argued bitterly with and who had eventually left a woman to fend for themselves (forget the times he thought it had perhaps been the other way around). And to have that reminder every day, along with the son she still had drifting away (of which he was entirely to blame in his moment of guilt)…

…he'd just have to do something about that. And find his brother.

…brother?

_/Pause./_

_/Break./_


End file.
